Dhawan advanced down the wicket but could only manage to spoon the ball back to the bowler, who took a smart diving catch.

Vijay (40) looked in control during his knock before he was done in by a Morkel delivery that straightened after pitching to hit the batsman plumb in front of the wicket.

Morkel, leading the South African pace attack in absence of injured team mate and world’s top-ranked test bowler Dale Steyn, beat Kohli (22) several times before inducing an edge from the right-hander which was pouched by wicketkeeper Dane Vilas.

Ajinkya Rahane (13) struggled throughout his stay at the crease and played an expansive drive off Morkel to be clean bowled.

Off-spinner Simon Harmer further pegged India back by dismissing Cheteshwar Pujara (21) and Rohit Sharma (two), who was playing his first match in the series.

Both sides went in with an extra spinner for the match with India opting for leg-spinner Amit Mishra and South Africa adding Harmer to their line-up.